I have 1999 sport xls montero (this is my first car ever) and its battery dies after a couple of hours/days of not using it, even though I charge it. My brother and I think the drain is coming from the missing radio antenna-the antenna motor still tries to pull up/down the antenna even though its missing + it lasts a while when i start the car and turn off the car. So what we want to do is to disable the antenna motor but I do not know how? There could be other reasons the car battery drains that i dont know of. HELP.

 

First, make sure the radio is turned off!! The antenna will only try to go up when the radio is on. Or you can pull the fuse for the radio and antenna and see if it helps. But if the antenna motor only runs-on for a few seconds then that's not likely to drain the battery, IMO. It could simply be a bad battery. In other words, check for the most obvious things first. Have it tested for free any any auto parts chain. If it tests good, they can also test your alternator and charging circuits.

Good luck.

 

It sounds like you have what is called a parasitic drain. If you have experience with multimeter, you can try to find it yourself. When your battery is fully charged, disconnect negative battery cable and plug in a mulimeter between the battery and the terminal you took off. Set the multimeter to Amps (current). You'll see some numbers on the screen - probably few hundred miliAmps. After that unplug fuses one by one and watch the reading. If you reading changes drastically (drops down to near zero) - you found the circuit which is responsible for the draw. You may have more than one circuit drawing the battery down. If you get a partial reduction in current, leave that fuse out and continue to the rest. Once you repair the faulty component or wiring, plug the fuze back in and check current again.
If this is too much for your skill level, a good mechanic or an auto electrical specialist should be able to do this diagnostic for you.

 

Thank you. Very noob question but where is the fuse box? My dad said there are multiple fuse boxes and he isnt sure which one to use? I dont really believe him- he thinks he is a know it all.

 

Older vehicles have one fuse box under the hood. Many of the 90th-2000th model year vehicles have two - one under the hood and one in the cabin. The very brand spanking new ones coming out right now may have even more.
Check your owner's manual and see if you have a single or dual fuse box and to see where it is located. When you do the test for parasitic draw you'll need to check both boxes because the draw can be coming from ether one of the subsystems.